Category: Sports

Congratulations to the Birmingham Barons for winning the 2013 Southern League Championship Series against defending champions the Mobile BayBears in game 5 of the 5 game series! Below are a few highlights from game 5:

These images show that despite being the bread and butter of sports photography, action images aren’t the only ways to visually tell a story. Reaction (celebration and dejection) shots are also pretty powerful. As are active portraits of key players such as this shot of Birmingham Barons 2nd baseman and series MVP Michah Johnson as he rounds the bases after hitting an out of park homer.

I regularly teach photojournalism classes where students propose to shoot night sporting events. And I happen to shoot a fair amount of night sporting events as well. Here are some tips to think about if you want to take your night sport shots to the next level:

1) Go as a photographer, not as a spectator. As fun as it sounds to shoot sports photography (and it is), your photography will suffer if you go as both a fan and a photographer. Focus on the photography. Leave your kids, spouse, friends in the stands.

2) Stay out of the stands. As obvious as this might sound, you’d be surprised at the number of students who attempt to get good shots from the stands. Get access to the field. Before the game. If you are shooting youth sports, this isn’t usually a problem. High school sports might be a different story. Contact the school for questions about getting a field pass.

3) Bring an external flash. Plan to use it. Load it with fresh batteries and bring backup batteries. Set it on full power in TTL (automatic) mode. If you can, get it off camera with a flash bracket. Or take it off camera with a synch cord (my method) and clamp it to your monopod. Taking flash off camera can help you avoid the dreaded “red-eye.” Read More

Frequently, I like to shoot sports from eye level or lower. It isn’t unusual to see me kneeling or sitting on the sidelines of any game to capture the action. I like the low angle perspective because it gives the viewer the feeling of actually being on the field and part of the action. Of course, this angle isn’t always ideal. For instance, during this Leeds vs Calhoun County prep sports baseball game, I quickly decided that there were too many distractions behind short stop Rie Falleetta and that the higher angle from the press box would eliminate the yellow fence line, the house, and the occasional vehicle that drove through the background. I knew that the clean (almost) green canvas of the field would make a nice background for this baseball player throughout the game.

So, as I trudged up the stairs to the press box to get that higher angle, I was already mentally writing this blog entry about how changing angles can really improve image quality. The only problem is that the shot from the lower angle–one of the first shots of the game–was the best portrait of Rie (go figure; I could have left the freezing cold game an hour earlier than I did had I known THIS would be the shot that I would ultimately send to The Birmingham News).

Instead, I will just mention how framing and selective focus can help an image. The left part of the frame just happens to include the out of focus torso of an umpire. It improves the image by forcing the viewer’s eye to the tack sharp player and by obscuring some of the noisy background. I like when this happens. I certainly didn’t plan on it happening, but when editing, I look for serendipitous framing such as this.